If you don’t follow the business side of the casino industry, you may be surprised by this piece of information. In the past 10+ years, Boyd Gaming's three casinos in Downtown Vegas, Main Street Station, The California, and Fremont, have generated anywhere from 60-65% of their revenue from people visiting from Hawaii.

How much is that? Well, in the third quarter of 2014 alone, Boyd stated its downtown properties had net revenues of $53.4 million. That’s an increase of 1.3% from the same quarter a year ago.

Hyperbole has taken over the web in the past couple of years, just about everything is the best ever or the worst ever. This weekend, I ran into a best ever moment in Las Vegas, but it wasn’t hyperbole. The first weekend of March Madness in Vegas was probably more than anyone could have imagined. It is now the biggest sports weekend in Vegas. Sorry, Super Bowl, but you can move to the back seat.

Nevada gaming revenue reports are fun to read and you don't have to be a nerd to enjoy them. You can learn a lot about people that gamble. How they gamble, where they gamble... it's all fascinating.

When perusing the year-end Nevada gaming revenue reports for 2014 there was a lot of obvious information that most people see on a regular basis. People on the Vegas Strip gamble less than people in Downtown Vegas. This isn’t news as the revenue has been trending this way for over 20 years. However, one bit of information really stood out.

Whether you agree or disagree that sports wagering and fantasy sports, especially daily fantasy, are gambling, they’re similar enough to have a comparative discussion. This week, Bloomberg wrote that fantasy sports websites are positioned to become legal online gambling sites in the future. Fantasy websites tend to argue against that statement since they want to keep their noses clear of online sports gambling which isn’t legal in nearly as many states as fantasy sports.

Right now, fantasy sports is living in an online space similar to where online poker was 12 years ago before Black Friday shut down most poker websites in America. The online poker boom was great for poker players in Las Vegas. Just about every casino opened a poker room because of the popularity explosion.

We love checking out Old Vegas. Whether browsing through black-and-white era photos in books, watching old 8mm footage online, or getting out and seeing the artifacts for ourselves, we’re always coming across intriguing similarities and differences between days gone by and present Vegas. Sometimes, they’re obvious and give us a laugh, like the differences in attire. Other times, we’re left with questions. Today’s is “where did all the chairs come from?”

If you look at the images from way back in the early days of Vegas, you can’t help but notice that nearly everyone is on their feet. Slot players, armed with handfuls of nickels, stand shoulder to shoulder as they watch the cherries spin by on old-fashioned reel machines. Ties, pocket squares, and hats accessorize the suits worn by roulette players crowding around green-felted tables. Even blackjack players, notorious for putting in long sessions, are often seen upright.

It’s taken a long time, but Four Queens has finally relinquished its title as owner of the worst Las Vegas hotel website. When we last took a look, the outdated design and poorly functioning reservations system didn’t leave us wanting to return. 2015 marks a new era for Four Queens, however, as they’ve both upgraded their website and refreshed some of their guest rooms.

The new site is a huge improvement, without question. The previous incarnation, still partially accessible via Archive.org, wasn’t really worth visiting unless you wanted a laugh. Still, we can’t help but feel like Four Queens only made it to 2005 in terms of website design. Maybe it’s the old photos. Or, perhaps it’s just that seeing “no resort fee” makes us feel like we’ve stepped back in time.

For slot players, waiting out bonus games can be a maddening process. Bonus rounds generally provide the best opportunity for a large payout on a machine. They’re also the most fun part of playing. Many modern video slots are indistinguishable from one another during standard reel play and watching row after row of familiar symbols spin by can get tiring. It’s not until the music starts and the bonus round begins that games like Monopoly and Wheel of Fortune really get exciting. If you’ve never had the patience needed to wait out triggering a bonus, slot makers finally have the answer for you.

Dice control in craps is the theory you can influence the outcome through your throw. Controlling dice is no easy task since not all craps tables and rolls are exactly the same. The bounce in the felt on tables can be different even in the same casino. Likewise, the back wall of craps tables may offer a different bounce by their pyramid placement. Dice control goes beyond simply setting the dice in a certain manner. It's the entire process of rolling the dice.

In theory, dice must be rolled at the exact same velocity and angle every time while hitting the same spot on the back wall to achieve the same result over and over. It would take a lot of practice to come up with the muscle memory to roll the dice exactly the same all the time.

Until its recent transformation into The LINQ Hotel, the hotel-casino formerly known as Imperial Palace served an important role in Vegas. Sure, it was the smoky dump of a casino that people scoped out just for laughs. And yes, the rooms were so cheap and hilariously awful that they afforded broke college kids on spring break the opportunity to stay center Strip. But, we’re talking about its most important role: making the rest of The Strip look good.

For years, you could stay anywhere else on Las Vegas Boulevard, pay any price, even get the worst of rooms right next to the noisy ice machine with a view of an AC unit and still say “well, at least it’s not Imperial Palace.” And, you would be absolutely correct in doing so.

Visitors doing Vegas on a budget often head downtown to get more for their money. There’s no denying that when compared to the Strip, downtown is full of bargains. Average room rates are about half of what you’ll find ($66 vs. $126 in 2014). Dining downtown is easier on the wallet as well, with the priciest downtown buffet coming in at just over $20. That’s a deal when compared to the more than $50 you would spend on The Strip. A commonly repeated piece of advice suggests that in addition to these savings, downtown offers better returns than the Strip when gambling, especially at slots. That seems to makes sense, given that everything else downtown is cheaper, but is it true?

At VegasChatter, we can be easily amused. (Reference: underboob) If that's you, too, and you haven't made it to Pizza Rock yet, make sure you order up awesome in a can when you do make the visit.

We’ve told you about Pizza Rock before. It’s located a block off Fremont Street at the corner of Ogden and 3rd (201 north 3rd Street, to be exact). They have a variety of specialty drinks and beers, but the fun choice is PBR. You see, Pizza Rock doesn't just serve Pabst Blue Ribbon. It sells 32-ounce cans of PBR. And, they serve them in paper bags! (Yes, as one of the newest writers for VegasChatter writer, I am just discovering the awesomeness of Pizza Rock for myself.)